Learning
To research dynamics from a CDST perspective, the central concern is not whether the data are quantitative versus qualitative in nature, but rather how the data are collected and analysed. Many cross-sectional and longitudinal designs to date can claim to have looked at change over time but typically they are not examining the dynamics in action and the actual processes of change which is the focus of a CDST perspective. Note also that longitudinal data in the form of test-retest designs where data collection occurs on only two occasions would not usually lead to the density of data required to assess dynamic changes as they happen. Furthermore, qualitative data do not automatically meet van Dijk et al.’s (2011) criteria for CDST data unless that data explicitly targets interacting processes. Data that best address the concerns of CDST are dense, longitudinal and individual. Here the term ‘longitudinal’ implies specifying a timescale for study which might be a long time period (measured by change over the years, the typical sense of ‘longitudinal’) or the timescale can be relatively brief measured by change over a few minutes which also can be considered longitudinal, especially if change is rapidly occurring.
The types of data required for dynamic studies are best obtained from methods designed to be dynamic from the outset rather than retro-fitting a study that used one-time measurement or pre-post designs. We have undertaken several such studies and found them to be quite challenging. We made our share of mistakes along the way. In doing so, we learned some lessons that can be shared in the hopes of allowing future researchers a smoother experience. In this final section, we will share some of those challenges, problematize them and describe the solutions we have worked out. The topics below include some of the most widely studied topics in the psychology of language learning, reinforcing the notion that the goal is to look at familiar processes in a different way to create new understandings and challenge existent conceptualizations.
Willingness to communicate
WTC was originally defined and studied in the native language communication literature, reflecting a stable predisposition to approach or avoid communication. The original WTC scale presented a set of 12 situations where a person might choose to initiate conversation with friends, acquaintances or strangers in a public speaking situation, large meeting, small group, or a dyad. In the L2 literature, additional measures of WTC were developed to focus also on tendencies to communicate inside versus outside classrooms, different skill areas and in different educational contexts (MacIntyre & Ayers-Glassey, in press).
The shift to a more dynamic perspective began most notably with MacIntyre and Legatto (2011) who examined WTC from a dynamic perspective using what has become known as the idiodynamic method. The challenge of adopting the dynamic approach was to measure WTC on a near continuous basis, in real time. Given that it is not possible to have research participants both speak and rate their WTC simultaneously, the solution was to record the speech on video for immediate playback. A second challenge was to provide numerical ratings of WTC that showed meaningful fluctuations over time. To capture those ratings required new software which could play back the participants’ video and synchronize it with the WTC ratings made by the participant every second. The video serves to stimulate recall and immediate playback mitigates memory biases that affect reporting of previous affective states. This procedure allows researchers to gather a series of numerical ratings, linked in time with the video playback and to capture fluctuations in WTC longitudinally but over a short period of time (less than 5 minutes). The method also requires an interview with the person making the ratings to explain their rationale for increases and decreases in WTC scores, and allows for interviews with interlocutors and other observers. The interviews help to account for the unseen thought and emotion processes that contribute to communication.
Data analysis in this study examined both tendencies at the group level and analysis within persons, and what the authors called analysis in both horizontal and vertical directions. Results at the group (horizontal, across persons) level showed, unsurprisingly, that some tasks produced more WTC and longer speaking times than others. Results of the vertical analysis (within an individual) showed that there were meaningful exceptions to those trends. Further, results emphasized the intricate, continuous interactions among WTC, anxiety, vocabulary retrieval from memory, prior experience, self-presentation and nonverbal communication. In presenting the pattern of WTC fluctuations the authors emphasized that WTC was an attractor state built in part as an evolution from the previous state of the system; once a task was initiated, the respondent tended to continue even if there was some difficulty encountered and anxiety was aroused.
Motivation
Much of the literature on motivation has been studied from the theoretical standpoint of either the integrative motive (Gardner, 2010) or the L2 self system (Dörnyei, 2005). In both cases, motivation is considered over a long timescale of months and years. The integrative motive refers to a long-term process of taking on valued characteristics of another group. Similarly, the L2 self system reflects relatively long term processes including accumulated L2 experience, a sense of obligation (ought-to self), and the ideal future self. The most common research methods involve questionnaire-based measures of motivation.
MacIntyre and Serroul (2015) studied motivation from a dynamic perspective, over a short time period. The first challenge in doing so was to define the specific dimensions of motivation on which to focus. The problem in practical terms was to define a quality of motivation that changes on a per-second basis. The solution was to go outside the language arena, back to motivational basics, and look at approach and avoidance motives because they are defined as changing from moment-to-moment (see Epstein & Fenz, 1965). The experimental task featured a structured set of eight questions, administered orally by a research assistant, to be answered in the L2, similar in format to an oral quiz. Results showed fluctuations in approach-avoidance motives that were tied closely to interactions among attributes of the specific tasks, ongoing vocabulary retrieval, emotion processes, self-related cognition and other processes. There was no evidence of influence from integrative motivation or the L2 self. This pattern was somewhat surprising given the relative lack of emphasis on tasks as the driver of motivation in the L2 literature, but in retrospect the results make sense given the nature of the situation and timescale under study. The issues raised by central concepts in both integrative motivation and the L2 self system seem to refer to processes occurring over longer timescales or which might not be applicable in the specific experimental situation created by the study. In this study, the change in methods and timescales precipitated revisiting theory to find a perspective that better suited a CDST study on a per-second timescale. This suggests not only practical changes and fresh insights when researching from this perspective but also potential benefits offered by revisiting theories through a new lens.
Anxiety
As is the case for WTC and motivation, language anxiety has been studied widely in SLA. The theoretical approach to anxiety research was originally a mix of concepts adapted from other areas (including trait anxiety and test anxiety) with uncertain applicability to language learning contexts. In the mid 1980s, however, a specialized approach created scales to measure typical levels of anxiety in language-related contexts including classrooms (Horwitz et al., 1986), language use in the community (Gardner, 1985) and anxiety tied to specific skills such as reading and writing (Horwitz, 2017).
Gregersen et al. (2014) studied anxiety from a dynamic perspective linking anxiety arousal with physiological changes (heart rate) in the context of delivering a classroom presentation by L2 learners. One challenge of this study was to coordinate the measurement of anxiety and heart rate in real time. Physiological measures such as heart rate are tied to specific measurement timescales (e.g. beats-per-minute). The recording equipment used, similar to the heart rate tracking band that a runner might wear around the chest, also produces missing data when the sensor briefly loses contact with the skin as a person moves around. One significant problem was that the per-second timescale of measurement produced fine-grained information but with many missing data points. The solution was to define segments of a much longer communication event, averaged over longer time periods, which could be graphed together. By averaging ratings within a segment of communication stable measures of both anxiety and heart rate were generated, removing some of the noise that affects data collection under real world conditions (i.e. outside a controlled laboratory setting).
A second challenge presented